Croatan drops to Clinton 55-54 in ECC action

Published: Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 10:05 AM.

Clinton first-year coach Randy Jordan said he knew right away that Saunders’ putback was too late.

“I knew it was no good,” he said. “You could see that the light had already gone off when it was still in his hands. I saw the official in the corner then wave it off.”

The almost game-winner was certainly the play both teams will remember from this game involving two of the teams who figure to be in the running for the
ECC
title. However, the final play would not have happened if not for a late rally by Clinton.

Dementio Bryant made two free throws with 20 seconds left that gave Clinton a 55-54 lead and polished off a 7-0 run to end the game.

“Bryant at the foul line, that’s being a senior leader,” Jordan said.

Croatan appeared en route to remaining undefeated as the Cougars took a 54-48 lead with 1:40 left on a layup from Mitchell Smith to cap a 10-4 run.

But 34 seconds later, Clinton’s Will Pearson made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 54-51. Clinton then forced a turnover and Greg Smith followed with a layup with 46 seconds left to make it a 1-point game.

BROAD CREEK — Croatan was a split second too late from keeping its undefeated record intact.

The Cougars’ Austin Saunders had a putback as time expired waved off by the officials, and Croatan fell to Clinton 55-54 on Wednesday night in an East Central 2-A Conference boys’ basketball game.

Earlier, Clinton defeated Croatan 59-41 in the girls’ game.

The Croatan boys’ (10-1, 1-1 ECC) had one final shot at beating Clinton as the Cougars forced a turnover with 1.5 seconds left, which gave them the ball in between their bench and the scorer’s table.

Jacques Chambers then got the ball in front of his team’s bench and missed a desperation shot, only to have Saunders tip the ball into basket as time expired, setting off a wild celebration by the Cougars and their faithful.

However, the officials quickly waved off the shot, which resulted in a victory for the Dark Horses (8-2, 2-0).

“I was hoping with it being home court, I thought he (the official) would give us the call, but…,” Croatan first-year coach Kirk McDougle said.

Clinton first-year coach Randy Jordan said he knew right away that Saunders’ putback was too late.

“I knew it was no good,” he said. “You could see that the light had already gone off when it was still in his hands. I saw the official in the corner then wave it off.”

The almost game-winner was certainly the play both teams will remember from this game involving two of the teams who figure to be in the running for the ECC title. However, the final play would not have happened if not for a late rally by Clinton.

Dementio Bryant made two free throws with 20 seconds left that gave Clinton a 55-54 lead and polished off a 7-0 run to end the game.

“Bryant at the foul line, that’s being a senior leader,” Jordan said.

Croatan appeared en route to remaining undefeated as the Cougars took a 54-48 lead with 1:40 left on a layup from Mitchell Smith to cap a 10-4 run.

But 34 seconds later, Clinton’s Will Pearson made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 54-51. Clinton then forced a turnover and Greg Smith followed with a layup with 46 seconds left to make it a 1-point game.

The Cougars turned the ball over again with 36 seconds remaining, setting up Bryant’s go-ahead free throws. Croatan again turned the ball over with 4.6 seconds left. After a couple of fouls, Clinton was called for an offensive foul, setting up the controversial finish.

“We were frustrated and there was a lot of finger-pointing (after the game). I told the guys, ‘If you learn anything, you can’t live your life like that,’” McDougle said. “We can’t complain about the refs because if we would have taken care of our jobs and done what we were supposed to, the refs would not have been a factor.

“I told the guys that we had sloppy turnovers, missed shots and missed execution and that all it would have taken was just one play (to have won the game).”

Croatan, the defending ECC champ, hopes to bounce back Friday when it travels to Northside (10-0, 2-0).

“Here lately we have gotten away with sloppy plays, but hopefully this loss will be a blessing in disguise and a wake-up call,” McDougle said. “We got Northside waiting for us. So it doesn’t get any easier.”

Smith ended with 16 points while Chambers added 15 for the Cougars.

Girls

Clinton 59, Croatan 41: Clinton scored the first six points and never looked back en route to an ECC win at Croatan.

The Dark Horses (9-3, 2-0) led 33-13 at halftime, but the Cougars (3-6, 1-1) got to within 40-29 in the third quarter before Clinton pulled away by scoring the first six points of the fourth quarter.

“You take away the first quarter and I think they just beat us by three,” Croatan coach Andrew Gurley said. “That first quarter hurt us. In the locker room at halftime I told them to keep their composure and that we had to keep playing hard and play our game.”